5 Treaty of Waitangi/Te Tiriti o Waitangi

(a)

sections 8(1)﻿(c) and 11(1)﻿(c) provide for te ao Māori to be an impact category in preparing synthesis and domain reports, to ensure that those reports, and the topics, are informed by a Māori perspective; and

(b)

section 19(3) requires consultation with iwi authorities before regulations may be made, to ensure that the Ministers are informed of the views of those organisations before regulations are made.

6 Act binds the Crown

This Act binds the Crown.

Part 2 Environmental reporting

Synthesis reports

7 Synthesis reports

(1)

The Secretary and the Government Statistician must jointly produce and publish reports on New Zealand’s environment.

(2)

As soon as is reasonably practicable after the Secretary and the Government Statistician have published a synthesis report, the Ministers must jointly present the report to the House of Representatives.

(3)

In subsection (1), New Zealand’s environment includes the domains referred to in section 10.

8 Content of synthesis reports

(1)

Each synthesis report must describe, in relation to the topics prescribed in regulations made under section 19, all of the following matters:

(a)

the state of New Zealand’s environment including biodiversity and ecosystems; and

(b)

the pressures that may be causing, or have the potential to cause, changes to the state of New Zealand’s environment; and

(c)

the impacts that the state of the environment and changes to the state of the environment may be having on each of the following impact categories:

(i)

ecological integrity; and

(ii)

public health; and

(iii)

the economy; and

(iv)

te ao Māori; and

(v)

culture and recreation.

(2)

In addition to the matters set out in subsection (1), each synthesis report must describe—

(a)

changes to the state of New Zealand’s environment over time, including, if information in the report is able to be compared with that in a previous synthesis report, changes to the state of the environment since that previous report was published:

(b)

how the state of New Zealand’s environment measures against national or international standards.

(3)

The Secretary and the Government Statistician are not required to include in synthesis reports information that cannot be obtained by using reasonable efforts.

9 Frequency of synthesis reports

(1)

A synthesis report must be published once every 3 years.

(2)

The first synthesis report must be published not later than 3 years after the date on which the first domain report is published under this Act.

Domain reports

10 Domain reports

(1)

The Secretary and the Government Statistician must jointly produce and publish reports on the following:

(a)

the air domain:

(b)

the atmosphere and climate domain:

(c)

the freshwater domain:

(d)

the land domain:

(e)

the marine domain.

(2)

As soon as is reasonably practicable after the Secretary and the Government Statistician have published a domain report, the Ministers must jointly present the report to the House of Representatives.

11 Content of domain reports

(1)

Each domain report must describe, in relation to the topics prescribed in regulations made under section 19, all of the following matters:

(a)

the state of the domain the report relates to, including biodiversity and ecosystems dependent on that domain; and

(b)

the pressures that may be causing, or have the potential to cause, changes to the state of the domain; and

(c)

the impacts that the state of the environment and changes to the state of the environment may be having on each of the following impact categories:

(i)

ecological integrity; and

(ii)

public health; and

(iii)

the economy; and

(iv)

te ao Māori; and

(v)

culture and recreation.

(2)

In addition to the matters set out in subsection (1), each domain report must describe—

(a)

changes to the state of the domain over time, including, if information in the report is able to be compared with that in a previous domain report, changes to the state of the domain since that previous report was published:

(b)

how the state of the domain measures against national or international standards.

(3)

The Secretary and the Government Statistician are not required to include in domain reports information that cannot be obtained by using reasonable efforts.

12 Frequency of domain reports

(1)

The first domain report for one of the domains listed in section 10 must be published not later than 18 months after this Act comes into force.

(2)

A domain report for one of the domains listed in section 10 must be published at least once every 6 months, unless, within the next 6 months after the most recent domain report is published, a synthesis report is due to be published.

(3)

If, by virtue of subsection (2), a domain report is not published because of the publication of a synthesis report, the domain report must be published within the next 6 months after the synthesis report is published.

(4)

Each of the domains listed in section 10 must be reported on at least once every 3 years.

Production of environmental reports

13 Overview of process for producing environmental reports

The process for producing an environmental report involves the following steps:

(a)

the topics to be reported on are prescribed by regulations made under section 19, after the Ministers are satisfied that the topics meet the requirements of that provision; and

(b)

the statistics to measure those topics are selected in accordance with section 14(2); and

(c)

the procedures and methods to be used in providing those statistics in an environmental report are decided in accordance with section 14(4).

14 Roles of Secretary and Government Statistician

(1)

In producing and publishing an environmental report, the Secretary and the Government Statistician must utilise the expertise of the Ministry and Statistics New Zealand.

(2)

Before producing an environmental report, the Government Statistician must, after consulting the Secretary, decide what statistics will be used to measure topics prescribed by regulations made under section 19.

(3)

In deciding under subsection (2) what statistics will be used to measure topics, the Government Statistician must—

(a)

follow what he or she believes to be best practice principles and protocols; and

(b)

be satisfied that the statistics accurately represent the topic they purport to measure.

(4)

The Government Statistician has the sole responsibility for deciding the procedures and methods to be used in providing statistics that will be included in an environmental report.

15 Duty to act independently

In producing and publishing an environmental report, the Secretary and the Government Statistician must act independently of any Minister of the Crown.

16 Reports to be fair and accurate

The Secretary and the Government Statistician must, in so far as it is reasonably practicable, ensure that all environmental reports published give a fair and accurate representation of the state of New Zealand’s environment, or the state of the domain being reported on.

17 Protecting integrity of untested information

(1)

This section applies only to untested information.

(2)

All requests for untested information must be transferred to the Government Statistician.

(3)

The Government Statistician may, in response to a request for untested information, at his or her sole discretion withhold any untested information.

(a)

(b)

(c)

pressure topic is closely related to any state topic that it is asserted to affect:

(d)

impact topic is closely related to any state topic that is asserted to give rise to that impact.

(3)

Before recommending the making of regulations under subsection (1), the Ministers must consult—

(a)

the Government Statistician; and

(b)

the Commissioner; and

(c)

the public; and

(d)

iwi authorities; and

(e)

local authorities.

(4)

In this section,—

impact topic means a topic of a kind referred to in subsection (1)﻿(a)﻿(iii) or (b)﻿(iii):

pressure topic means a topic of a kind referred to in subsection (1)﻿(a)﻿(ii) or (b)﻿(ii):

state topic means a topic of a kind referred to in subsection (1)﻿(a)﻿(i) or (b)﻿(i).

Reprints notes

1 General

This is a reprint of the Environmental Reporting Act 2015 that incorporates all the amendments to that Act as at the date of the last amendment to it.

2 Legal status

Reprints are presumed to correctly state, as at the date of the reprint, the law enacted by the principal enactment and by any amendments to that enactment. Section 18 of the Legislation Act 2012 provides that this reprint, published in electronic form, has the status of an official version under section 17 of that Act. A printed version of the reprint produced directly from this official electronic version also has official status.